In general, wet food goes bad readily in the air under atmospheric pressure. Typically, food is filled in an ordinary food receptacle and stored in a refrigerator. However, it is difficult to keep food for a long period merely by filling the food in the food receptacle, and storing the food in the refrigerator in that state.
In order to store food for a longer period, a multi-purpose vacuum receptacle lid has been developed in which a check valve is provided in the lid, and the air inside a receptacle is bled to evacuate the inside of the receptacle to a pressure below atmospheric pressure so as to keep food in the receptacle.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an example of a conventional receptacle lid.
The vacuum receptacle lid 10 as illustrated in FIG. 1 has a lid body 11. The lid body 11 is provided with a valve mounting portion 14 at the central area thereof, and the valve mounting portion 14 is formed with a vent hole 12 and a valve coupling portion 13. A check valve 15 is coupled to the valve mounting portion 14. The check valve 15 serves to allow the air inside the vacuum receptacle to be discharged through the vent hole 12 while blocking ambient air from flowing into the inside of the vacuum receptacle. The check valve 15 is provided with a knob 15a in order to allow a person to lift a part of the check valve 15 so as to forcibly release the negative pressure developed in the vacuum receptacle.
A seal mounting portion 16 is formed along the peripheral edge of the bottom side of the lid body 11 to extend downward. The lid body 11 includes a laterally extending portion 17 that extends outward from the top end of the seal mounting portion 16, and a downwardly extending portion 18 that extends downward from the end of the laterally extending portion 17. An insertion recess 19 is formed on the bottom side of the lid body 11 and outside the top end of the seal mounting portion 16. The insertion recess 19 is provided in order to allow a rubber seal 20 mounted in the seal mounting portion 16 to be firmly installed in the seal mounting portion 16 so that the rubber seal 20 is not released from the seal mounting portion 16.
The rubber seal 20 includes: a body portion 21 mounted in such a manner that the inner circumferential surface is closely contacted with the outer circumferential surface of the seal mounting portion 16; and a close contact portion 22 extending outward from the bottom side of the body portion 21 and configured to come into close contact with a peripheral edge of the mouth opening of the vacuum receptacle so as to block ambient air from flowing into the inside of the vacuum receptacle.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating another example of a conventional vacuum receptacle lid.
This example does not form an insertion recess on the bottom of the lid body 11 in order to remove a disadvantage of the vacuum receptacle lid 10 described with reference to FIG. 1. In this case, there is an advantage in that it is easy to mount the rubber seal 20 in the seal mounting portion 16. The remaining configuration is the same as that of FIG. 1.
The invention related to the above-described lids and rubber seal is disclosed in Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2010-0078576 entitled acuum Receptacle Lid, and Check Valve and Packing for the Same? and published on Jul. 8, 2010.